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Manhole Explosion Displaces Building Full of Residents

Lights Out!

At around 8:00pm at the intersection of Troy Ave. & Lefferts Ave. a loud explosion went off, sending a manhole cover flying 15’ in air and landing back in the hole. The manhole is where all the Transformers and Electricity Cables are run through and it services that 6 square block radius.

Street lamps were seen flickering and the entire area smelled of burnt rubber. 2 Battalion Chief’s and 9 Fire Trucks responded to the call, during which a small home where a Jewish family lives also call 911 due their house filling up with smoke. FDNY quickly deployed and checked out all the surrounding buildings for faults and problems with the electricity, and found only one building 762 Empire Blvd. that had suffered from the explosion and evacuated the entire building then cut the electricity.

According to the 41st Battalion Chief Young, the explosion was caused by a strong corrosive chemical contained in the salt that is used on the streets to prevent icing. Apparently it seeped into the manhole and ate away the rubber shielding on the wires, causing short-circuits and finally the explosion.

All residents of 762 Empire were ordered to evacuate the building due to hazardous conditions, families that were in the middle of cooking supper or putting the little children to sleep were forced out barely dressed enough to withstand the cold night, so a member of the Shomrim got one of the Bais Rivkah School buses and parked it in front of the building giving parents a warm place to sit with the young ones, the parents were very thankful to Shomrim as was the FDNY.

More pictures in the Extended Article!

ConEd was hammered by this storm all across New York City and initially gave a 3 hour time frame for them to determine what happened and correct it, but thank G-D they showed up within 45 minutes and immediately began replacing the damaged wire’s.

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9 Comments

  • Vintage jeans

    I was crossing the street on that corner when it happened. Thank G-d nobody was walking on it, if there had been it would have been awful. The explosion was like a grenade explosion. It happened twice, one a few seconds after the other.
    Good work shomrim and as allways nice pics.

  • good work

    u forgot to mention that they were allowed back into the building after 3 hrs
    great pics

  • dude

    hey i think it was amazing that at least there was somewhere for these ppl to go when they were forst out of there homes

  • lives in Israel

    Whoever had to go through this experience might now understand to a very small degree what the people from gush katif went through. some of them don’t have permenent homes yet, and who knows if they have proper heating this winter.